Sibrandus Lubbertus

c.1556-1625. Calvinist theologian, best known as a Contra-Remonstrant* leader in the controversy leading up to the Synod of Dort.* Born at Langweer in East Friesland, Lubbertus studied at Wittenberg, Marburg, and Geneva, where he became an enthusiastic disciple of Beza. After stays in Basle and Heidelberg, he returned (now in his late twenties) to his home territory. He preached in Emden (1583), and at twenty-nine became a professor at the new university at Franeker. As a mature scholar he became increasingly alarmed by the teachings of Arminius* and engaged in active controversy against Vorstius,* Grotius,* and other leaders of the Arminian or “Remonstrant” (after the Remonstrance* of 1610) party. He was an ardent defender of orthodox (or scholastic) Calvinism, an able controversialist, a voluminous pamphleteer. The Remonstrant controversy became entangled with politics, increased in intensity, and led to the Synod of Dort; there Lubbertus, in his sixties, was a leading delegate, and took part in the deliberations which led to the condemnation of the Remonstrants and the triumph of the dogmatic Calvinism he had so long affirmed. He died soon after.